


wasting your emotion

by sleepinnude



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Flirting, M/M, Touching, because lbh i can't actually write real plot, implications of PTSD, my two favorite things when it comes to these bastards, not real plot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-21
Updated: 2013-06-30
Packaged: 2017-12-15 15:56:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/851368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepinnude/pseuds/sleepinnude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruce and Steve flirt. A lot. Not obviously, mostly through touches. It's a delightful little game they play and they're both aware of it. It's just a slow-burn to make it to something past flirting.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. rule of thumbs

**Author's Note:**

> yes the title is from an ABBA song please don't judge me
> 
> rating will go up eventually. most likely.  
> i honestly just go where the boys take me.

He’s got one broad hand spread over Bruce’s shoulder as they tuck together for a photo-op. Normally Steve cringes internally every time someone with a camera tells him to “Say Cheese, Captain!” But this is different. Mostly because tonight isn’t one of the terribly transparent PR gigs and is for gala held by the mayor. Maybe a little because it’s Bruce standing next to him, wearing his impeccably-tailored (Pepper’s doing) suit like it still didn’t fit him.

His fingers slide over that expensive fabric, feeling the coiled strength deep within Bruce’s shoulders. One thumb slots over the side of that shoulder and then trails up to skip over the jacket’s lapel, over the stiff white of the dress shirt collar. Bruce shivers a little at the pad of Steve’s thumb, stroking up over the short hair there. So Steve does it again. And Bruce gives him a sort of pretending-to-be-trying-to-hide-it smile that Steve can just imagine comes from Bruce as a school-teacher trying not to encourage some smartass student (maybe Tony immediately comes to mind as that “smartass student”).

Bruce jostles closer to Steve then and his hand slides, warm and strong, under Steve’s jack. Steve imagines a handprint printed over his shirt, at the small of his back. Then a thumb swoops down to wedge beneath the snug fit of the waist of Steve pants. He lets out a short little sound of surprise but it’s inaudibly – to everyone but Bruce whose smile spreads out from something hesitant and shy to something bright and camera-ready.

When the camera flash goes off, both of them are smiling obediently, but not for the camera.

The picture runs in the newspaper the next day (Society pages, that’s a change from front-page devastation) and Steve is glad for the black-and-white print so the blush that had bloomed over his cheeks didn’t show.


	2. grounding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steve doesn't have too think to far to figure out why he ends up in Bruce's lab after a nightmare.

Steve wakes up and he’s icy cold with sweat beading over his temples and collarbone. His heart is pounding in his head and the call of a dying brother-in-arms is still echoing against his skull. He breathes a few deep breaths and hopes to get a handle on his heartbeat. The SHIELD-assigned psychiatrist had told him about the importance of “grounding” himself and so he opens his eyes and flicks a light on and takes inventory of his room around him. He starts to see straight again; war-torn Europe fades. Bucky’s voice lingers though, and a high whine starts beneath it.

Steve has associated the sensation with going crazy.

Giving a huff of an exhale (Bucky calling him “Cap’n” in his ear), Steve slings his feet over the edge of his bed and pads through the hall. The lights are auto-dimmed outside of his room and he makes his way through the semi-darkness, bare feet dulled against plush carpeting. He’s almost sorry that he has the way memorized because it leaves his mind free to wander, to remember. “Grounding,” he mutters to himself and raises a hand to trail along the cool of the metallic wall. His heartbeat speeds up a little at the need and he suddenly realizes that he won’t be able to handle getting to the lab and having it dim and dark and dormant.

“Jarvis?” he asks hesitantly, still unsure about the AI.

“Yes, Captain Rogers?”

“Sorry…to disturb you?” he prefaces. “I was wondering if Dr. Banner was in the lab.”

“He is indeed, Captain.”

Relief floods over him, cool and calm like waking from a dreamless sleep. “All right. Thank you.”

The AI doesn’t respond and Steve reminds himself that there isn't a real person on the other end. 

The door to the lab is some sort of plexiglass (actually probably some super-material that Tony invented and perfected himself but Steve isn’t sure and hasn’t asked) so he can clearly see Bruce, chin tilted as he studies a scroll of data on a screen. He looks over at the electronic trill of Steve entering and offers a bitten-off smile. “Jarvis mentioned you were coming.”

Steve returns the almost smile and scruffs a hand through his hair, still damp from his fear. Bucky’s voice is further away now. “I didn’t want to interrupt you but…” His sentence hangs and he licks his lips.

Bruce’s brow furrows, curious, and he nods to Steve, prompting him on. “But?”

Steve shifts, smiling sheepishly at his feet and lets a shrug roll over his shoulders. He can’t tell Bruce the truth, not yet. That the echo in his ears seemed to vanish almost instantly when it's up against Bruce droning on with a quiet enthusiasm. That Steve is never more sure that he's present than when the arches of his feet are pressed against the cross-support of one of the lab’s stools. That he feels safe and in place at once when with Bruce, listening to Bruce.

Clearing his throat, he asks, “What’re you working on?”

Bruce hesitates a moment, lips pressing together, before waving his hand to an empty stool and summoning diagrams up with his fingertips. Steve takes the seat and lets the calm, steady cant of Bruce’s voice fill his mind, gently press at the memories.

It’s maybe an hour later that he wakes up to the doctor’s fingers carding through his hair and Bruce’s soft, reassuring voice telling him that he’ll take Steve to his room, get him back to bed, that his back’ll never forgive him if he sleeps in that stool any longer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *spins in circles*
> 
> i literally have no clue what's going on in this story, but i hope you're enjoying the ride with me!


End file.
